The Book of Malachi (9) "The Day of The Lord" (2) 05/01/2022

First Baptist Church Leominster

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and that Jesus Christ save sinners and help us now Lord as we open up your word we just pray that things would be very clear to us if there's anyone here that doesn't know you we pray that they would and we pray that you would guide them and lead them we pray that each one of us would have a better understanding of who you are your character and your work guide us now

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Lord as we open your word thank you in Jesus name well let's turn in our

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Bibles to the last chapter the last three verses of the

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Old Testament Malachi 4 and we'll consider today verses 4 through 6 these verses conclude this prophecy that we've given attention to now this past what nine weeks but not only do these verses provide a fitting conclusion to the prophecy of Malachi itself but really these three verses provide a fitting conclusion to the entire

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Old Testament as well now the last couple weeks we've addressed this we've shown how there's a singular message from chapter 3 verse 13 through the end of the book and so we want to read these verses verses 4 through 6 within context but we're going to begin with chapter 4 verse 1 for behold the day is coming burning like an oven when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble the day that is coming shall set them ablaze says the

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Lord of hosts so that it will leave them neither root nor branch but for you who fear my name the

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Son of Righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings and you shall go out leaping like calves from the stall and you shall tread down the wicked for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when

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I act says the Lord of hosts remember the law of my servant

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Moses the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all

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Israel behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the

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Lord comes and he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction and so ends the prophecy of Malachi so ends the

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Old Testament Christian Old Testament as we have it and so these verses are a fitting conclusion not only for the book but the entire

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Old Testament we have two noted persons from the Old Testament record cited for us we have

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Moses and Elijah Moses mentioned in verse 4 stood forth as the giver of God's law at Mount Sinai and here

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Mount Sinai is referred to as Mount Horeb Elijah verses 5 and 6 was regarded by many in Israel to be the greatest of the prophets who stood forth representing them and their message to the people of God through these two great persons of the

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Old Testament Moses and Elijah God warned his people to turn back to him otherwise

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God would utterly destroy them and so God was about to annul his covenantal relationship with his people the nation of Israel this is all covenantal language here at the end of this chapter the curses of the covenant were coming upon them because of their failure to turn from their sin and turn back to him now last

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Lord's Day we showed that this prophecy of the day of judgment was not a prophecy of the second coming of Christ although an initial and casual reading of it might lead you to think that it is rather this describes

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God's judgment upon Israel as a consequence of Christ's first coming here in Malachi 4 verse 4 through 6 we read of God's ultimatum an announcement to his people ethnic people

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Israel that he would bring his judgment upon them God declared that all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble and that the coming day would set them ablaze as we saw back in verse 1

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God would utterly destroy the evil ones from among his people leaving them with neither root nor branch but God would not extinguish all in Israel for he would spare a remnant saving them through his judgment and God purpose that those who feared his name verse 2 would be saved through his judgment

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God promised them deliverance and dominance over those who had belittled and persecuted them and so God said of them but for you who fear my name and again that's a description of true believers in the

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Old Testament for you who fear my name the Son of Righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings and you shall go out leaping like calves from the stall and you shall tread down the wicked for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when

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I access the Lord of hosts so with this conclusion of the

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Old Testament we have announced the impending judgment of God upon his people upon his people

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Israel which was in accordance with his covenant covenantal dealings with them since the days of Moses it's within the context of God's relationship with the nation of Israel and he calls upon Moses and Elijah to testify against them now we want to work through and consider the details of these verses and then we will consider the the fulfillment and ultimate application for us and so let's consider the meaning of these three verses first God commands

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Israel to remember his law that he gave through Moses God's concluding message to his people

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Israel through his prophet was his call for them to give due regard to the law that he had given them through his servant

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Moses remember the law of my servant Moses the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all

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Israel first let's consider the word remember remember the law of my servant

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Moses the word remember used in this context is not just a call to recollect what they had once been taught the word is stronger than mere recollection

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God was not simply reminding his people of something he was calling them back to live according to the law that God had given them to remember his law means that they were to do it to keep his law they were to order their lives according to God's laws this was the reason that the

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Jews were to wear tassels on their garments so that they would remember to keep his laws not just to recall them but to keep them and so we read in numbers 15 speak to the children of Israel tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations to put a blue thread in the tassels of their corners and you shall have the tassel why for what purpose that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the

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Lord and do them and so you see the word remember is more than just recollection he's calling them to do keep the laws of God that had been given to them so that you may not follow the harlotry at your own heart your own eyes are inclined and that you may remember and do all my commandments and be holy for your

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God this is the same idea as Psalm 103 17 through 19 but the mercy of the

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Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him and his righteousness to children's children to such as keep his covenant and here it is and to those who remember his commandments to do them it's not enough just to remember them is to remember them in order to do them the

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Lord has established his throne in heaven and his kingdom rules over all Psalm 119 55 and 56 to remember

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God's law is to keep God's law or to observe God's laws the psalmist wrote

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I remember your name in the night O Lord I keep your law this has become mine because I kept your precepts and so I remember the psalmist said and so this word remember is not simply recall but he's calling them back to do to order their life according to the laws that God had given through Moses at Mount Horeb and second when

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God declared the law of my servant Moses God was calling his people to keep their covenantal obligations that he made with Israel at Mount Sinai as we gotta establish a covenant with that nation after defining his law

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God became more specific the statutes and rules that I commanded him Moses at Horeb for all

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Israel Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai actually the use of Horeb is the name of the mountain on which

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God gave his laws to Moses is found predominantly in the book of Deuteronomy not exclusively there but predominantly and so even the use of Horeb here in Malachi 4 speaks of their covenant relationship because that's what

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Deuteronomy reveals Moses reiterating the covenantal obligations of Israel as they're about ready to enter the promised land and so in Deuteronomy Moses rehearsed before Israel what became known as a synodic covenant again it was established 40 years before at Mount Sinai but Moses is reiterating it at the end of the 40 -year wilderness wandering the realization of God's promises to bless

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Israel is contingent upon Israel ordering its life in the land according to God's laws it was a covenant of works if they kept

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God's laws God would bless them if they lived a contrary to God's laws God would curse them it was contingent upon their obedience keeping

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God's law was the condition that God required of them in order for them to continue to receive his blessing in the land that he had promised them and into which he would soon bring them for example here are the words of Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 4 and notice the condition of God's blessing was their obedience to the law now

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Oh Israel listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe for what reason that you may live and go in and possess the land which the

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Lord of your God Lord God of your fathers is giving you you shall not add to the word which

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I command you nor take from it that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I commend you your eyes have seen what the

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Lord did it Baal Peor for the Lord your God is destroyed from among you all the men who followed

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Baal of Peor but you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today every one of you surely

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I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the Lord my God commanded me that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess and therefore be careful to observe them for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people for what great nation is there that God that has

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God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us for whatever reason we may call upon him and what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all his law which

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I set before you this day only take heed to yourself and diligently keep yourself lest you forget the things your eyes have seen lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life and teach them to your children and your grandchildren especially concerning the day you stood before the

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Lord your God in Horeb when the Lord said to me gather the people to me and I will teach them and I will let them hear my words that they may learn to fear me all the days they live on the earth that they may teach their children then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of heaven with darkness cloud thick darkness and the

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Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire you heard the sound of the words but saw no form you only heard a voice and so he declared to you his covenant which he commanded you to perform the

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Ten Commandments he wrote them on two tablets of stone and the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments for what purpose that you might observe them in the land which you cross over to possess the nation of Israel the ethnic

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Jewish people in the nation the political nation of Israel's relationship with God was based upon and contingent upon them keeping the commandments of God as their covenant that was the basis of their relationship and so at Mount Sinai God had established a covenant with the

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Jewish people the physical descendants of Abraham and that he constituted them a holy nation before him

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God promised to favor Israel above all the Gentile nations of the world but his promises to them was contingent on whether or not they order their lives according to his commandments to order their lives according to his laws and so back in Malachi 4 4 at the very end of the

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Old Testament God was essentially giving Israel an ultimatum to remember or to turn back to order their lives according to his law or he would bring an end to their covenant relationship he would utterly destroy them and their land that he had allowed them to possess and so actually this warning to remember the

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Mosaic Covenant to keep the laws of Moses was a condition to remain in favor with God and this was a common message in the prophets throughout the

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Old Testament not just here in Malachi long before Malachi even before the exilic period in Babylon the 6th century

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BC the Prophet Jeremiah gave Israel this warning and once again

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I want you to take note the relationship with ethnic Jewish Israel was contingent on them keeping the laws of God the word that came to Jeremiah from the

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Lord saying hear the words of this covenant there's the language covenantal relationship speak to the men of Judah to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and say to them thus says the

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Lord God of Israel cursed is the man who does not obey the words of this covenant which

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I commanded your fathers in the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt from the iron furnace saying obey my voice do according to all that I command you so shall you be my people and I will be your

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God that I may establish the oath which I have sworn to your fathers to give them a land flowing with milk and honey as it is this day and I answered and said as Jeremiah so be it

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Lord then the Lord said to me proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah in the streets of Jerusalem saying hear the words of this covenant and do them for I earnestly exhorted your fathers in the day

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I brought them out of the land of Egypt until this day rising early and exhorting saying obey my voice yet they did not obey or incline their words of this covenant which

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I commanded them to do but which they have not done and the Lord said to me a conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem they've turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers who refused to hear my words and they've gone after other gods to serve them the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that's the

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Mosaic Covenant which I made with their fathers and therefore thus says the Lord behold

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I will surely bring calamity on them which they will not be able to escape though they cry out to me

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I will not listen to them then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they offer incense but they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble according to the number of your cities were your gods

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O Judah and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you've set up altars to that shameful thing altars to burn incense to Baal so do not pray for this people this is

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God instructing Jeremiah don't pray for them I won't hear or lift up a cry or prayer for them for I will not hear them in the time that they cry out to me because of their trouble what has my beloved to do in my house having done lewd deeds with many and the holy flesh is passed from you when you do evil then you rejoice the

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Lord called your name green olive tree lovely and good fruit with the noise of great tumult he's kindled a fire on it and its branches are broken for the

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Lord of hosts has planted you has pronounced doom against you for the evil of the house of Israel in the house of Judah which have done which have done against themselves to provoke me to anger in offering incense to Baal and so Jeremiah several hundred years before Malachi gave the same message that God would bring judgment upon the nation because the nation had failed and refused to order their life according to the laws of God that God had given through Moses at Mount Sinai and of course

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Jeremiah's prophecy was immediately fulfilled in the Babylonian destruction of Judah and Jerusalem that took place in 586

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BC Babylon conquered Judah destroyed Jerusalem in its temple taking the surviving

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Jews into captivity to Babylon and then here in Malachi God is speaking once again to his people years after that event that Jeremiah had foretold

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God had been merciful and enabled a remnant of Jewish people to return from Babylon to their land but had they learned from God's earlier dealings with them did they order their lives according to God's laws no they failed and refused to do so and so here in the last words of the

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Old Testament God warned them one last time of their need and responsibility to repent of their sin remember the law of my servant

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Moses the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel God declared that they must do so lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction and so this last word of the

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Old Testament is a word of dire warning and a threat of God against his people to turn back from their sin and to order their lives according to the laws that he had given them well aside from the call for them to keep the laws of God that God had given to Israel we see secondly that they were to respond to Elijah whom

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God would send to them and this is what we have in verses five and six God would send

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Elijah to them before the day of judgment verse five we read of God's intention behold

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I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes now as we've already argued though many see this as a prophecy of the second coming of Christ we would argue that's incorrect

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God is speaking of bringing judgment upon the Jewish people Israel who are under the

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Mosaic Covenant this judgment was pronounced by the Lord Jesus himself on a number of occasions in his earthly ministry but this was ultimately fulfilled in AD 70 through God's instrument of the

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Roman armies when they destroyed Jerusalem destroyed the temple and scattered the people of Judah as well and so Elijah would come before that event took place this is not a prophecy of the

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Lord Jesus coming to judge the world at his second coming but it's a threatened judgment against the land of Israel in verse 6

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God's threatened judgment is that he would come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction in other words the promised land historically this is what happened in AD 70 here are the words of John Gill the 18th century commentator lest I come and smite the earth with a curse the land of Judea which because the greater part of the inhabitants of it were not converted to the

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Lord did not believe in the Messiah but rejected him notwithstanding the preaching and testimony of John the

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Baptist and the ministry and miracles of Christ it was smitten with a curse was made desolate destroyed by the

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Roman Emperors Vespasian and Adrian as instruments doing what God here threatened he would do for not the whole earth is intended as the

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Targum and he mentions a Jewish scholar Abarbenel suggests but only that land and the people of it are intended to whom the law of Moses was given and to Elias in other words

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Elijah or John the Baptist was to be sent and to whom he was sent and did come and by whom he was rejected and also the

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Messiah he pointed at for which that country was smitten with a curse and remains under it to this day

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Gill writing in the 18th century why would God send

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Elijah God would send one more prophet who would give one last opportunity for the people to repent of their sin and turn back to God he called them to remember the law he'd given at Sinai and he would send a prophet in the

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Jewish mind perhaps the greatest of prophets Elijah who would call them back you'll recall that God had raised up Elijah historically at a time in Israel when there were very few faithful people in the land in fact

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Elijah himself thought at one point he was wrong in his estimation but he thought he was the last true person the last true devoted person to God in Israel God indicated to him no there were 7 ,000 others that the

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Lord had reserved for himself but here we see God would send this prophet

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Elijah to his people to call them to repentance one commentator wrote having looked back to what was commanded

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Malachi now looks forward to the great and terrible day of the Lord an expression used in Joel 231 there will however be a warning first the choice of Elijah to typify the coming prophet may have been suggested by the mention of Horeb interestingly for like Moses Elijah had a revelation of God there and then again

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Elijah served as a moral catalyst to the nation no other prophet so dramatically changed the attitude of his contemporaries nor so influenced the destiny of the nation if the messenger of chapter 3 back in Malachi 3 1 through 3 was in mind

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Elijah had called down fire from heaven and had witnessed the Lord's wind earthquake and fire at Horeb and had been taken from Elijah in a chariot of fire and so both

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Moses and Elijah can both be linked with Mount Sinai or Mount Horeb what would this prophet

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Elijah seek to declare to the people before whom lies utter annihilation in God's judgment well verse 6 the last verse of Malachi the final verse of the

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Old Testament reads and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction this would be a predominant theme and emphasis of the preaching of this prophet who is a forerunner to God's judgment upon Israel he would give forth a message to restore family life in Israel one commentator asserted the future ministry of this coming prophet is described in terms of bridging the generation gap the fifth commandment implied that the home was essentially the school of the community there in a world in miniature authority and submission love and loyalty obedience and trust could be learned as nowhere else and with the

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Word of God as guide in the home society could be changed if we had time we could point to the scourge of the families in the world today in America particularly and in the inner cities you know in fatherless homes and broken homes and you see the terrible ramifications of that within our own social order well this coming prophet was going to address that whole matter within his ministry and so again

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Israel had failed to order its national life according to God's laws they needed to be called back and in order to do this their families needed to be put back into order now we know from other portions of Holy Scripture that with the coming of the

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Lord Jesus God not only annulled the Mosaic Covenant but he instituted or inaugurated a new covenant to replace it

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Malachi doesn't mention the new covenant here but it certainly mentioned elsewhere the

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Apostle Paul spoke about the temporary nature of the Mosaic Covenant and when Paul wrote it had already passed away and been superseded and so the

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Apostle Paul explained to New Testament Christians God's purpose for having instituted and then annulled this covenant with Israel Paul wrote what purpose then does the law serve it was added because of transgressions until the seed that would be

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Jesus Christ should come to whom the promise was made and it was appointed through angels by the hand of the mediator most of the law was given to Moses through the instrumentality of angels and now a mediator does not mediate for one only but God is one is the law then against the promises of God certainly not for if there had been a law given but which could have given life truly righteousness would have been by the law but the scripture is confined all under sin why so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe but before faith came we were kept under guard by the law that's the

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Mosaic Covenant kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith but after faith has come we're no longer under a tutor in other words the

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Mosaic Covenant is no longer necessary or in force God had foretold that he would establish a new covenant with Israel replacing the synodic covenant because of its inability to enable people to live lives of righteousness the writer to the

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Hebrews quoted Jeremiah 31 and 31 following as having been fulfilled by Jesus Christ and so here's

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Hebrews in the New Testament speaking about the new covenant that replaced the Mosaic Covenant that we've been describing for if that first covenant had been faultless referring to the

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Mosaic Covenant then no place would have been sought for a second there would have been no need if the law of Moses created righteous people but it didn't because finding fault with them not that there was a problem with the laws of God on Sinai the problem was with the people they couldn't keep it finding fault with them

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God says behold the days are coming says the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when

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I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt because they did not continue in my covenant and I disregarded them says the

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Lord that's the result of the prophecy of Malachi 4 for this is the covenant

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I will make with the house of Israel after those days says the Lord I put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts see the laws aren't written on two tablets of stone but they're written on the hearts of his people and I will be their

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God and they will be my people and none of them shall teach his neighbor and none his brother say know the

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Lord for all will know me from the least of them to the greatest of them for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their longest deeds

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I'll remember no more and in that he says a new covenant he's made the first obsolete that's the

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Mosaic Covenant and now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away and so here at the end of Malachi chapter 4 at the end of the

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Old Testament we have the prophet calling the people back to adhere to and maintain the

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Mosaic Covenant they refused and failed and as a result the judgment of God came upon Israel the

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Lord Jesus himself sent the Roman armies and destroyed the city destroyed the temple destroyed the land but he instituted inaugurated a new covenant in its place and it's that new covenant that we just celebrated here when he said take this cup this is the new covenant in my blood the cross of Jesus Christ inaugurated that new covenant and this new covenant is not based upon your obedience or my obedience as the old covenant was the new covenant is based on Jesus Christ obedience and therefore it's steadfast and can never be disannulled and this is why we're secure before God in Christ because the new covenant is based upon Christ's righteousness and obedience not ours but also because he did an inward work of grace in our souls and he wrote his law upon our hearts we desire to keep

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God's law we'd love God's law we'd love God's Word the people of Israel didn't their relationship with God was only external something that was forced upon them something they did not resonate with it was not in their heart yes there were some there was a remnant who feared the

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Lord God's always had his people down through history but it was but a remnant and the

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Lord blessed them the apostles the early Jewish Christians were among this remnant that came to salvation through Jesus Christ now we recognize in the middle of page seven that the fulfillment of this prophecy of Elijah being sent to Israel was realized in the person and ministry of John the

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Baptist we touched on this last week but we will reiterate and supplement what we said the

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New Testament is clear that John the Baptist was the Elijah to come of this last prophecy of the

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Old Testament we'd read in Malachi an earlier prophecy of John Malachi 3 1 and following God declared behold

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I send my messenger he'll prepare the way before me that's what John the Baptist did prepared the way for the

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Lord Jesus and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple and the messenger the covenant in whom you delight two messengers are mentioned here the first messenger is

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John the Baptist the second messenger is the Lord Jesus Christ the messenger of the covenant the new covenant he's coming says the

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Lord of hosts but again who can endure the day of his coming who can stand when he appears for he's like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap and that's what the

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Lord Jesus did when he came and ministered on earth he purified the nation of Israel he separated them as wheat from chaff the wheat he gathered onto himself the chaff he burned with unquenchable fire and John the

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Baptist declared that this would be his work when we work through this message this passage several weeks ago again two messengers the first being

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John and then here in Malachi 4 verses 5 and 6 we read that Elijah would turn will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children of the fathers we just could turn over a couple more pages into the

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Gospel of Luke and we read the prophetic word of Zechariah the father of John the Baptist and he described the ministry of his son this is

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John the Baptist he'll be great in the sight of the Lord he'll shall drink neither wine nor strong drink he'll also be filled with the

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Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb he'll turn many of the children of Israel to the

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Lord their God he'll also go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah there you have an illusion and what will he do what will

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John the Baptist do to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children it's a direct quotation from Malachi 4 verses 5 and 6 the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to rake ready a people prepared for the

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Lord and then of course as we cited last week the Lord Jesus himself declared

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John the Baptist was the Elijah to come in Malachi's prophecy as the people were departing

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Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John the Baptist what did you go out in the wilderness to see a reed shaken by the wind what did you go out to see a man clothed in soft garments indeed those who wear soft clothing are in kings houses what did you go out to see a prophet yes

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I say to you more than a prophet why was John the Baptist a prophet and yet more than a prophet because it was prophesied that he would come for this is he of whom it is written and Jesus quotes

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Malachi behold Malachi 3 1 behold I sent my messenger before your face who will prepare your way before you assuredly

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Jesus said I say to you among those born of women there's not risen one greater than John the

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Baptist but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he and from the days of John the

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Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force for all the prophets and the law prophesied until John and if you're willing to receive it he is

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Elijah who is to come he who has ears here let him hear John the

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Baptist was the realization of this prophecy and Malachi 4 verses 5 and 6 and so we would argue we would reason the day of judgment that Malachi 4 told was fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem and Judah by the

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Roman armies in AD 70 again Malachi declared for behold the day is coming burning like an oven when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble the day that's coming shall set them ablaze as the

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Lord of hosts so that it will leave them neither root nor branch and John the Baptist warned the people of Israel they all needed to repent and be baptized with view to the arrival of the promised kingdom and the

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Messiah John was declaring that all Israelites were in need of cleansing of their sin they all needed to be baptized with view to the coming

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Messiah or else the wrath of God would come upon them this is exactly what the prophecy of Malachi 4 declares and so we read in Matthew 3

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John speaking about Jesus the Messiah he'll baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire his winnowing hand is in his hand he will thoroughly clean it out his threshing floor he'll gather his wheat into the barn but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire this reference to Christ burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire speaks of the finality and fullness of his destruction of them

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Joel had promised or prophesied that the Messiah would both baptize his people with the

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Holy Spirit and pour out fire upon his enemies and that the pouring out of the

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Holy Spirit would take place before his judgment upon those that rejected him and this is what

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Peter declared on the day of Pentecost Acts chapter 2 these are the words

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Peter explained to the gathered crowd when they had witnessed the visible evidence of the

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Holy Spirit being poured out Peter standing with the eleven lifted up his voice and addressed them men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem let this be known to you give ear to my words for these people are not drunk as you suppose since it's only the third hour of the day but this is what was uttered through the

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Prophet Joel in the last days it shall be God declares

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I'll pour out my spirit on all flesh the last days began with the ministry of Jesus Christ and I'll pour out my spirit on all flesh and your sons and daughters shall prophesy your young men shall see visions your old men shall dream dreams even on male servants and female servants in those days

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I'll pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy and I will show wonders in heaven above signs on the earth blood and fire vapor and smoke the

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Sun will be turned to darkness the moon to blood before the day of the Lord comes that great and magnificent day and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the

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Lord shall be saved he's not talking about the second coming there he's talking about the

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Holy Spirit being poured out before the day of judgment fell upon Israel the day of the

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Lord was a certain destruction of the Roman armies of Jerusalem the temple in the land that occurred in AD 70 and yet we need to conclude with of course this word all that we've read and considered regarding the historic days of the

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Lord's salvation and judgment in the first century are preludes to a far greater manifestation of both salvation and judgment when

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Jesus Christ returns the fulfillment of Malachi's prophecy of God's judgment upon Israel in the first century is a prelude and a guarantor of what awaits the world at his second coming and so just as John the

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Baptist the Elijah to come warned his people of their need to repent of their sin before God and view of the coming

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King in his kingdom so we too are warned to prepare ourselves for a far greater judgment before us one far more pervasive and expansive than whatever has gone on before and so we'll close with the words the

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Apostle Paul warning a church to be on guard and ready for the second coming of Christ now concerning the times and the seasons brothers you have no need to have anything written to you for you yourselves are fully aware the day of the

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Lord will come like a thief in the night in other words unexpected not secretly on it's not quietly but unexpected while people are saying there is peace and safety security then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman and they will not escape but you are not in darkness brothers for that day to surprise you like a thief see we're not going to be caught unawares not because we know when it will be occur but we're gonna be ready regardless of when it occurs for you're all children of light and children of the day we're not of the night or the darkness so then let us not sleep as others do but let us keep awake and be sober for those who sleep sleep at night those who get drunk or drunk at night but since we belong to the day let us be sober having put on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet the hope of salvation for God has not destined us her wrath but to obtain salvation through our

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Lord Jesus Christ who died for us so that whether we're awake or asleep we might live with him and therefore encourage one another and build one out of that one another up just as you are doing so the

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Old Testament concludes a warning against the people of Israel that God's judgment would have come upon them for having transgressed his covenant they transgressed his covenant the judgment of God came upon them but God saved a remnant through Jesus Christ and Paul and Romans said

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God hasn't cast away the Jews he foreknew I'm a Jew and I'm a believer he says God saved a remnant of Jews and he promised in the

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Old Testament of course that remnant would take the gospel throughout the world and the nations would heed that call of the gospel and so the church is born and throughout the world and we're part of that but it's all born out and flows out of this terrible instigation judgment of God when he brought his wrath upon that people

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Israel in the first century let's pray thank you father for your word thank you

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God for the clarity of history that we have that we're able to look back and read of your dealings and see of your dealings we just pray our

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God that you would help us not to be as those insensitive people of Israel who disregarded your word but help us

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Lord as Christians as ones who believe on Jesus Christ awaiting the day of the return to always be watchful and ready help us our

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God to stay close to you help us to remain in faith help us also to be faithful to you our

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God we're in need of the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit to guide us and help us and empower us to live for you and we'll thank you and praise you our